Photo of Phillies Mgr. Charlie Manuel by Icon SMI

Charlie Manuel teams play well in August, and 2010 was no different.  The Phillies were 18-10 for the month and went from 3.5 games back and in 2nd place to sharing the lead with the Atlanta Braves.  Not bad for a team that has been slammed with injuries and plagued with no offense for long portions of the season until this point.

August began as a terrific month for the Phillies.  In July, after stumbling mightily with a 1-6 record directly following the all-star break, the Phillies caught on fire and won 8 games in a row before losing two in a row to the Nationals.

The Phils continued their hot streak into August by winning five in a row and 12 of their next 15 games, including a sweep of the Marlins in Miami and a series win over the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The highlight of that awesome stretch was certainly the win over the Dodgers on 8/12:
Down 9-2 in the eighth, the Phils rallied for four runs in the eighth and four more in the ninth against Jonathan Broxton.  Carlos Ruiz capped it off with an RBI single and now has four hits in four at-bats along with two game winning hits against Broxton in his career.  It was also the 4th blown save for Broxton against the Phillies in the last four years (two of them in the NLCS).

The Phils followed up that great stretch by splitting the next four games before falling flat on their faces against the Houston Astros.  They were swept in four games at Citizens Bank Park against Houston in a series that featured former Phils Brett Myers and JA Happ.

A sweep at the hands of a last place club looked even worse considering the Phils had a 7 game west coast trip looming against the Padres, Dodgers, and Rockies.  The Phillies would not hang their heads, though.  They landed in San Diego and were able to sweep the National League’s best team en route to a 6-1 road trip that extended into September.

Overall, it was another successful August for Charlie Manuel and the Phillies.  Since 2005, Charlie Manuel has an 100-68 record in August.  That is a .595 winning percentage, which works out to 96 wins over an entire season.  It seems like clockwork with Charlie when we reach the heat of the summer.

Here are the stats for the month of August:

18-10 record
Top win streak: 5
Top losing streak: 4
Home record: 8-8
Road record: 10-2
Series record: 7-1
Began month: 56-48 in 2nd place – 3.5 games behind Braves
Finished month: 74-58 Tied for first with Braves

With the Philadelphia Phillies heading to their second consecutive trip to the World Series, here are a few tributes to the late, Great Harry Kalas: A Phillies Legend!

This first one is presented to you by Comcast…

This one is the Harry Kalas tribute video 4/17/09 Citizens Bank Park…

This one is slower with snap shots of Harry the K put to a slow march, very fitting…

In game 3, the Phillies 45 year old starter Jamie Moyer pitched better than anyone thought was possible against the Rays Matt Garza (MVP of the ALCS). He pitched 6.1 innings and allowed only 3 runs in a 5-4 9th inning win by the Phillies.

This one wasn’t pretty as each team had late inning errors and bad calls by the umpires once again. This time it was on a bang bang play at 1B where the nearly 46 year old pitcher dove and flipped the ball to Howard at 1B who caught it barehanded before the runner’s foot hit the bag. At least that”s what the replay clearly showed. By the way, kudos goes out to FOX for their new picture in picture instant replay that showed this call as an error in a freeze frame. This runner came around to score the game tying run at 4 all in the top of the 8th.

In the bottom of the 9th, you saw defensive replacement for LF Pat Burrell, Eric Bruntlett get hit by a pitch, then with the Flyin’ Hawaiian, CF Shane Victorino at bat looking to bunt the runner along only to see the new pitcher Grant Balfour throw a wild pitch inside that almost hits the Hawaiian. Bruntlett scampers to second and then to third on an errant throw by Navarro (Rays catcher) that landed in CF. Victorino is then walked as was pinch hitter Dobbs who hot for 3B Feliz. Then with the bases loaded and no on out, up stepped hot hitting Phillies catcher, Carlos Ruiz. Rays manager Joe Maddon then brings in RF Ben Zobrist (the Rays SS a year ago who became a super utility man in 2008) to play as a 5th infielder directly behind the 2B bag. When play resumes, Ruiz hits a slow chopper half way down 3B that Longoria barehanded, but has no chance to get Bruntlett who scored from 3B. What a finish and a bold and correct move by losing manager Joe Maddon none-the-less.

Game 4 is the only blowout of this series as the Phillies won 10-2. The Rays starter Andy Sonnanstine was just a little off his game, but the Phillies bats came alive with a thunderous series of blasts off the bats of Howard (2), Werth and Blanton (yes, the Phillies starting pitcher). This was Blanton’s first career HR and the first by a pitcher in the World Series since Ken Holtzman of the A’s hit one in 1974. He hit it off of Edwin Jackson who came in after Sonnanstine.

The Rays just haven’t played up to the hype they built for themselves this magical year. BJ Upton has cooled off and their pitching hasn’t been as effective as it was in the LDS or the LCS. Not to mention that the biggest part of the Rays offense, their number 3 and 4 hitters, 1B Carlos Pena and 3B Evan Longoria have yet to get their first hits of the series. At least one of these two has to get hot if they are going to have a chance in beating the determined Phillies. So far, the Rays just haven’t played well enough, all around, to win this series.

Game 5 is tonight in the city of brotherly love and if the Phillies win, it will be their first World Series victory since 1980 and I believe, only the third such victory in franchise history. The match up is a repeat of game 1 between the Rays Scott Kazmir who pitched well, going up against the Phillies Ace of their staff, Cole Hamels. Hamels is 4-0 in the playoffs this year and the Phillies have not lost at home this post season. This may be all she wrote as the fat lady get’s ready to possibly sing tonight in Philadelphia.

The Series is Now Tied at 1 Game a Piece

The Rays James Shields didn’t pitch great, but all he had to do was pitch better than the Phillies Bret Myers (I know, I know. I spelled Myers wrong yesterday) and he did. He got into trouble at times, but pitched out of them effectively. Myers did not!

Philly also played sloppy baseball. Werth booted a ball in RF that resulted in a run and then was later doubled up at 1B on a throw from Rocco Baldelli in RF. Rocco showed that despite his condition, he still has one heck of an arm in the outfield! If I left out anything, please add it in the comments…

For the Phillies, the bad news is that SS and leadoff man Jimmy Rollins is in an 0-10 slump in this series, but on the bright side, 1B Ryan Howard seems to have broken out of his with a 2-4 night. In his second at bat he hit a curveball hard for a double and that seems to have been what the doctor ordered. For the Phillies to have a chance in this series, they have to do better with runners in scoring position (RISP). They let Shields get out of way too many jams last night.

The Rays may not be hitting long balls as they did in the ALCS, but they are playing great small ball with Bartlett executing on a safety squeeze (hat tip to FOX announcer Tim McCarver) scoring Floyd early in the game.

One note that needs to be mentioned is the factor that the home plate umpire was in last night’s game. That supposedly held swing by Baldelli that should have been strike three and missed hit by pitch that clearly struck the jersey of Rollins late in the game were just as bad as the blown balk call of the night before.

Let’s all hope that game 3 isn’t rained out as some weather reports have suggested.

Can the Phillies starter and old man of the mound, Jamie Moyer pull out a surprising win against the Rays ALCS MVP, Matt Garza? Which batters will get hot in homer friendly Citizen’s bank Park? Well, what do you think? You’ve got two days to share your thoughts with us! Let your voice be heard! This site is way too quiet if you ask me!